A cold weather test

In the weeks since we published our story on the American Colin O’Brady and the Englishman Louis Rudd, the dueling adventurers competing for an Antarctic first, we’ve fielded plenty of questions about their expeditions, and what sets them apart historically. Here are seven takeaways from their journey: What do we mean when we describe O’Brady and Rudd as crossing Antarctica “solo and unsupported?” “Solo” means they walked or skied alone, pulling their own weight without any assistance. In fact, they were essentially moving along parallel lines across the continent, and did not cross each other’s path since early in the expedition. “Unsupported,” the way we define it, means two things. First, they are not receiving any additional food or fuel drops along the way. They are carrying everything they need for their entire journey on their sleds, known as pulks. Second, they will not deploy kites to harness the wind, which would make it easier to haul their weight and get them across in far fewer days. Another way to define the Rudd and O’Brady expeditions is to call them solo, unsupported and unaided. In the polar exploration subculture, “unaided” means they are not using kites. Are you sure this hasn’t been done before? wrote:

This is the real test:

Mostly. Both men hauled all their garbage out as one would on a backcountry camping trip. But when they were making great time and chose to lighten their load of excess food or fuel, they buried it in the snow and tagged it with a way point that A.L.E. staff members can locate to retrieve by vehicle at a later date. Then there was nature’s call. Yellow snow was tolerated, but all solids had to be buried six inches deep. O’Brady brought four rolls of toilet paper. Rudd is old school: He used ice. wrote: